501.BB Palestine/6–849
Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, by the Director of the Office of Near Eastern and African Affairs (Satterthwaite)
I called Mr. Ethridge at Mr. Rusk’s suggestion to explain the difficulties we are encountering in finding a successor and to ask if he would be good enough to remain in Lausanne a few days longer in order to enable us to make final arrangements about a successor. This, we thought, might make it possible for him to complete the present phase of the talks.
Mr. Ethridge said first before replying he wanted to report on developments there. Mr. Eytan returned about an hour ago and immediately released a copy of an article in today’s Palestine Post under the by-line of its diplomatic correspondent. Eytan has requested that copies of this article be circulated tonight. The gist of this article is that it can be stated authoritatively that in spite of impressions to the contrary there has been absolutely no change in the policy of the Israeli Government with respect to the questions of boundaries and refugees and that nothing has happened to alter the attitude of the Israeli Government in the slightest.
Mr. Ethridge said that he is seeing Eytan in about one hour. The Arab delegations have asked to see him tomorrow morning about the Jerusalem situation. Fawzi el Mulki has told him that unless the Israeli troops are withdrawn from the neutral zone surrounding the Government House it will be impossible for him to carry on any further conversations.
[Page 1095]Mr. Ethridge then went on to explain that he and his staff were at the moment considering making the following suggestions to the Department. If I understood them correctly in spite of a very bad connection it was to the effect that the Commission propose an adjournment to mid August, when it would meet again at Lake Success. In the meantime a small staff would be retained which would be available to the parties if they had further suggestions. In this case Mr. Ethridge could, of course, continue as U.S. Representative.
Mr. Ethridge has already cabled the text of the Palestine Post article. He did not indicate that he would be cabling the foregoing suggestion to us now. Rather he requested that we phone him at 11 o’clock tomorrow morning our time (4 p. m. Lausanne time). He apparently feels that in all probability the talks will “blow up” tomorrow.
With reference to our request that he stay on a few days, he said that he would, of course, if necessary although it would be inconvenient for him. Since Hare has full information concerning all aspects of the problem, he seemed to feel that Hare could tie up the loose ends as well as he.
Mr. Ethridge also reported that Mr. Sassoon has told many people in Lausanne about our note. Cy Sulzberger1 is about to arrive in Lausanne and will no doubt hear about the note. Mr. Ethridge does not intend, of course, to discuss the matter with Sulzberger. He does, however, intend to give him background information concerning the situation in view of the fact that Sassoon has been talking so freely. I said that we would, of course, have no objections to this.
- A reporter for the New York Times.↩